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Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · c. 167–180 CE primary

passage 31 of 134 · letter which is now extant may be one of those which Tertullian (25/43)

in brief
The text explains Marcus Aurelius’ view that the human soul is a divine efflux, that the “daimon” or divine reason within guides knowledge of God, and that a person should live by this inner divinity.

the entire Logos, which is Christ. Swedenborg's remarks (Angelic Wisdom, 240) are worth comparing with Justinus. The modern philosopher in substance agrees with the ancient; but he is more precise.

God exists then, but what do we know of his nature? Antoninus says that the soul of man is an efflux from the divinity. We have bodies like animals, but we have reason, intelligence, as the gods. Animals have life ([Greek: psyche]) and what we call instincts or natural principles of action: but the rational animal man alone has a rational, intelligent soul ([Greek: psyche logike noera]). Antoninus insists on this continually: God is in man,[A] and so we must constantly attend to the divinity within us, for it is only in this way that we can have any knowledge of the nature of God. The human soul is in a sense a portion of the divinity, and the soul alone has any communication with the Deity; for as he says (xii. 2): "With his intellectual part alone God touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived from himself into these bodies." In fact he says that which is hidden within a man is life, that is, the man himself. All the rest is vesture, covering, organs, instrument, which the living man, the real[B] man, uses for the purpose of his present existence. The air is universally diffused for him who is able to respire; and so for him who is willing to partake of it the intelligent power, which holds within it all things, is diffused as wide and free as the air (viii. 54). It is by living a divine life that man approaches to a knowledge of the divinity.[C] It is by following the divinity within [Greek: daimon] or [Greek: theos], as Antonius calls it, that man comes nearest to the Deity, the supreme good; for man can never attain to perfect agreement with his internal guide ([Greek: to hegemonikon]). "Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods who constantly shows to them that his own soul is satisfied with that which is assigned to him, and that it does all the daemon ([Greek: daimon]) wishes, which Zeus hath given to every man for his guardian and guide, a portion of himself. And this daemon is every man's understanding and reason" (v. 27).

[A] Comp. Ep. to the Corinthians, i. 3, 17, and James iv. 8, "Drawnigh to God and he will draw nigh to you."

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topics: perception and the senses · the nature and attributes of God · will, choice, and freedom

Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · 167–180